Arizona in Arizona Bowl? Not likely

On Thursday, about 50 members of the organizing committee of the inaugural Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl met to discuss the ever-changing pool of possible teams.

‘’We call it ‘horse trading,’ ” said Tucson attorney Ali Farhang, one of the founders of the Dec. 29 game that will be played at Arizona Stadium. “It’s very unpredictable. We might not know what teams we’ll have until late Sunday afternoon.”

One of three Mountain West Conference teams — Colorado State, Utah State or Nevada — is almost sure to fill the MWC’s spot. After that? Maybe Rice. Maybe someone from the Mid-American Conference. Maybe a mystery guest on no one’s radar until Sunday.

But the team you almost surely won’t see is Arizona. The Wildcats will follow the money, and the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl is a start-up game that can’t afford to pay the $1-2 million necessary to get a Pac-12 team.

“If we took Arizona, we’d be setting ourselves up for financial failure,” said Farhang. “We just can’t pay that kind of money in our first year if we want to survive.”